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 They are cozy lines, like shared conversation that is disconnected, each on their own thought, yet, they circle around, making you think of the place they are and how they have shared together.
Reviewed by Sheri Harper
Almond Blossoms and Beyond: Poems by Mahmoud Darwish
Translated by : Mahammad Shaheen
Interlink Books
ISBN: 978-1-56656-755-8
These last poems by Mahmoud Darwish are contemplative and have a dislocated feeling since many deal with adjusting to life exiled to a new home. He is an Arabic writer from Palestine and the quiet of these poems almost feel shell-shocked but at the same time very grateful.
The ease of reading the poems in Almond Blossoms is one of the pleasures found inside. Darwish is a lover of life and peace and of the moment which he captures beautifully. The poems place you with him, many times sitting over coffee watching the world go by. His thoughts are what hold you, many about love, and a lover, but some also contain a dialogue between the two and the thoughts shared tie the couple together.
One of my favorites is a poem of thankfulness expressed by someone who lived in less comfortable surroundings but works for anyone in, If You Walk on the Street:
If you walk on the street that does not lead to an abyss,
say to the garbage collector, Thank you!
If you come back home alive, as rhyme returns,
unharmed, say to yourself, Thank you!
If you have expected something, and your guess has deceived you,
go tomorrow to see where you were, and say to the butterfly, Thank you!
The poem continues in the same vein and explains to others just how wonderful life in peace time conditions can be, even if the heartbreak of exile plays throughout. His inclusion of “an rhyme returns” says everything about his values and the terror of not being able to write.
The collection is titled after one of the poems, "To Describe an Almond Blossom." These following lines from mid-poem when he takes on the task of describing an almond blossom showcase Darwish’s style, concentration on the essence of the moment or item while the undertones carry a level of emotion as well as the author’s voice:
Like a man telling a woman her own feeling.
How can the almond blossom shine in my own language,
When I am but an echo?
It is translucent, like liquid laughter that has sprouted
on boughs out of the shy dew…
light as a white musical phrase …
weak as the glance of a thought that peeks out from our fingers
as in vain we write it
Darwish shares his love of language and his grief and his love. In Exile I, Tuesday a Bright Day, the reader sees a sample of his conversation poems:
She asks: Why do clouds scrape the tops of trees?
I say: Because legs cling to one another in the drizzling rain.
She asks: Why does a frightened cat stare at me?
I say: So that you stop the storm.
She asks: Why does the stranger long for yesterday?
I say: So that poetry can be independent.
She asks: Why does the sky turn ashen in the evening?
I say: Because you have not watered the flowers.
They are cozy lines, like shared conversation that is disconnected, each on their own thought, yet, they circle around, making you think of the place they are and how they have shared together.
Only by reading these poems do you actually realize what a treasure they are and how beautifully they communicate, here’s an especially lovely section from Like a Hand Tattoo from an Ode by an Arab Poet:
I am he. He walks over me
and I ask him,
Do you remember anything here?
Tread softly—remember,
the earth is pregnant with us.
He said: I saw the moon shining here,
Its grief plain, like an orange in the night.
It guides us in the wilderness to stray paths…
Without it, mothers could not meet their children.
Without it, wanderers could not read
their names in the night: Refugees
guests of the wind.
My wings felt small in the wind that year.
It is sad that these were the last poems Mahmoud Darwish wrote, but they share what he felt and a contemplative peace that comes from his experience. Overall, a book I will keep in my collection for a long time.
About the reviewer: Sheri Fresonke Harper is a poet and writer. She's been published in many small journals and is working on her second science fiction novel. See www.sfharper.com
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